{"id":244044,"date":"2010-12-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/mission-hills-resident-faithfully-leads-friday-evening-meander-through-neighborhoods\/"},"modified":"2010-12-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-13T08:00:00","slug":"mission-hills-resident-faithfully-leads-friday-evening-meander-through-neighborhoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/mission-hills-resident-faithfully-leads-friday-evening-meander-through-neighborhoods\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission Hills resident faithfully leads Friday evening meander through neighborhoods"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mission<\/a>
Mission Hills walking leader, Pat Peterson (far right), paused with her group for a moment to read a canyon marker. (Cynthia Robertson\/SDUN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Cynthia Robertson |\u00a0SDUN Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like clockwork, every Friday evening at 4:20 p.m., Pat Peterson arrives in front of Espresso Mio, located at 1920 Fort Stockton Dr. in Mission Hills. She walks just a few blocks from her house and waits by the newsstand at the corner. One by one, a dozen people show up to join her.<\/p>\n

Right on the dot at 4:30 p.m., the walkers push off in search of familiar sights and neighborhood surprises.<\/p>\n

Peterson is the leader of a walk called Mission Hills Meander, one of the countless walks offered by Walkabout International, a San Diego-based organization. Since 1993, she has been leading the walk through the neighborhood of fine homes, charming gardens and along canyon rims.<\/p>\n

The friends who join her have long been faithful walkers with her, some since the first day she began the walk. They walk at a moderate pace through the neighborhood as they talk about family and health, friends and vacations. Many believe that the walks offer a sort of therapy, giving people the chance to mingle with one another.<\/p>\n

People who are shy may not feel they could ever participate in such a walk. However, they will find that usually their fellow walkers respect each other\u2019s needs for privacy. Sometimes it is just good to get out and listen to others talk, smell the roses and admire the warm fires of a family enjoying their meal in the dining room.<\/p>\n

Peterson said that after a long term relationship broke up badly, she needed an activity to distract her. That is why she began the walk.<\/p>\n

Then again, she has lived in Mission Hills for forty years. \u201cI have friends here and love the homey one of-a-kind-homes and the friendly atmosphere,\u201d she said. \u201cBesides, I needed a moderate walk on Friday evenings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The happy group has its own kind of \u201cThe Price Is Right\u201d game in guessing the prices of homes for sale. In 1970, Peterson noted, the price of a middle-class house might have been $25,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that same house would sell for $700,000 or more,\u201d she said. \u201cMany one-story homes have now become two-stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the walker who provides the winning bid gets a slap on the back and a joke that they\u2019ll all share the home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe often see movies being filmed here,\u201d Peterson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we often are invited into homes, usually by the husband\u2014what wife wants an unexpected flock of strangers to view her not-dressed-up-for company-home?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Such an invitation was how the group got to see the Orizaba Housek, with the original stairway from Captain Johnson Orizaba that was shipped from San Francisco to San Diego in the 1800s.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn another visit inside a home, everyone in the group was treated to a glass of wine,\u201d Peterson said.<\/p>\n

Most Friday evenings, the flock of walkers\u2014as Peterson calls them\u2014are greeted warmly by the neighbors sitting out on their porches watching their children play in the front yard.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Cynthia Robertson |\u00a0SDUN Reporter Like clockwork, every Friday evening at 4:20 p.m., Pat Peterson arrives in front of Espresso Mio, located at 1920 Fort Stockton Dr. in Mission Hills. She walks just a few blocks from her house and waits by the newsstand at the corner. One by one, a dozen people show up […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Mission Hills resident faithfully leads Friday evening meander through neighborhoods","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}